I don’t know about you, but the majority of physical, paper mail that I get nowadays is marketing mail. As a result of a press release I got this morning from a company called MindFireInc, I’ve been doing some reading into how Hewlett Packard supports direct mail marketeers – and how MindFireInc will be integrating mobile barcodes onto the campaigns.
What’s the story here?
This story is a combination of three different things:
1) Hewlett-Packards extremely effective SmartStream programme
2) MindFireInc’s product that connects direct mail marketing with on-line
3) Mobile barcodes.
So let’s go through those briefly, one at a time:
SmartStream: this is a large suite of services and products that HP sells in order to support the rapid design, printing and delivery of vast jobs. It combines a range of industrial grade printers with a software suite that allows to you make design changes and implement them during an actual run without disrupting the flow. It will also allow you to, for example, print thousands and thousands of direct mail marketing letters, each with a different name on it – you know, for that “personalised” feel.
MindFireInc: this company provides web links for those personalised mails. So along with your name, a publisher can include a unique weblink on the letter. That way, if the consumer does follow the link, they’ll go to a landing page (provided by MindFireInc) that has their name on it.
Mobile barcodes: MindFireInc is now offering the ability to send a 2d barcode out with every letter. That way a customer doesn’t have to type in the custom URL – they can just snap it with their phone and get sent directly to their personalised landing page. A big part of this offering is that it syncs completely with the SmartStream offering from HP – anyone using SmartStream can place mobile barcodes on their printed products from within the software suite, with no extra effort on their part.
What we think?
Again I don’t know how you do things, but I never, ever open direct mail marketing. And I’m going to presume that the people who do regularly use their physical mail as a method for getting marketing input aren’t the kind of technical early adopter who are likely to have a smartphone with a barcode scanner on it. I applaud MindFireInc for getting in on this, and for using QR Codes – they aren’t pissing about with non-standard barcodes. But I honestly don’t think this is going to increase the presence of barcodes… or the companies who use this particular service.
I can understand your reservations, but your assumptions are wrong to begin with. No smart marketer is going to blanket a community with QR codes, the mailing list would be targeted to a smartphone database, right?
Research from ExactTarget in late 09 indicated that consumer preference for marketing communciations lies with Direct Mail, especially when coming from a business you are unfamiliar with. The study also indicated that Direct Mail carries the most direct influence towards a purchase. This includes the demographic I believe you are referencing, ages 18-24.
Lastly, you may not open every piece of mail you get, but unless you cover your eyes and walk to the trash can and just dump everything into it, then you will make a decision on every piece you receive. You will hold it, if only for a single second, and make a decision to open it or not. Direct mail has the reach to offer that decision to every household in America, the only media that does.
T.V ? Nope I have a DVR. Social Media? Nope, That’s for my friends, not businesses. Email? Nope, straight into my Spam file. Radio? Nope, I have an iPod. Newspaper? Nope, circ is down more this year. Mobile? Not if I have to pay for it.
Your predispositon clouds the potential here.
The junk mail on the table with a mobile code staring at you and your mobile phone right next to it with the software, and the words, scan this mobile code to see if you are the winner of a new toyo i mean Ford Truck!, you just might check it, because it will be that easy. You know the new fords are real nice.
you may not know 70 percent of Japan uses them and there a slight bit ahead of us in technology. The only thing that will stop the mobile code is an RFID chip printed on your junk mail.
Now if you see an 8-1 or any emoticon on a product it is a new sign or indicator that there is a mobile code near by. The emotion someone adds with there unique face can help bring traffic to any mobile code.